


spring comes, a mender of things

by siojo



Category: One Piece
Genre: Archaeologist Marco, Chickens, Edward just likes to gossip about his children, Farmer Ace, Gossip, Harvest Moon AU, M/M, Rouge kept everything, Small Towns, electrical problems, it's just important to the story, mentioned Portgas D Rouge/Gol D Roger, not in the bad way, repairing the family farm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-05-17
Packaged: 2019-04-24 02:25:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14345976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siojo/pseuds/siojo
Summary: When Garp gives a final ultimatum, either join the marines or take over his mother's old farm, Ace's already packing up for the farm before Garp can decide that Sabo and Luffy can't come with him. But the the farm, on the outskirts of a small town, has been abandoned since just after Ace's birth, but that's fine. Ace's up for a little hard work, including helping out Luffy's friend Robin and her colleague, Marco, with their dig occasionally.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> honestly you go to write a short fic to get your writer's block taken care of and it becomes a fic all it's own. yes, you read it correctly, harvest moon au, because it's a happy time and there's nothing horrible in harvest moon except animal death and i wanted happy.

Ace sighs, swiping at his forehead as he stares at the new portion of the roof that he had spent the morning putting up after spending the previous evening ripping up the rotten, water damaged boards. But the chicken coop should be fully inhabitable with this, which meant that Shanks would finally agree to let him purchase chickens instead of frowning at his farm and saying that it use to be so nice, once upon a time. It wasn’t like Shanks was blaming him, Shanks had promised that he wasn’t, but it felt like it.

This had belonged to his mom and Ace hadn’t even known it existed until gramps had given him a final, and gramps had been sure to stress the final, ultimatime. Either join the military like he had spent his whole life being trained for or he could take over his mother’s farm. It hadn’t been a hard choice, not even when gramps had forbidden either of his brothers from coming with him or visiting.

He was sure they would show up at some point. They weren’t going to listen to gramps if it meant they couldn’t see each other.

“Well, it looks like you’ve been hard at work,” Shanks says smirking as he leans against the fence around the coop. “And that looks like the repairs are all done, of course,” Ace snorts. “I have to do an inspection before I can even think to sell you a cute little chicken, let alone the four that you want.”

“I figured as much,” Ace rolls his shoulders, trying to loosen the tense muscles. “Think you can handle the inspection while I take the time and check on my crops? Or do I have to sit as you study every nail?”

“Go check on your plants, farmer boy. I’ll have a list of things that need fixing if there’s any changes that need to be done to the coop,” Shanks promises stepping through the gate.

Ace yawns, jumping down from the roof and ignoring Shanks’ comment about his knees before moving towards his field and checking over his tomates before moving on to water the corn that he had skipped this morning since the soil had still been so damp, before turning to face the barn.

It was in worse shape then the chicken coop, entire gaping sections of the roof having vanished or fallen into the barn proper, while the walls looked like they were infested with some type of bug. Ace was almost sure that it would be cheaper to tear the whole thing down and start fresh, instead of trying to shore up the damage. He wanted to get Shanks’ opinion before he started looking into the costs.

“You look intent there,” Shanks states suddenly too close, jolting Ace from his thoughts. “The coop is perfect, the only recommendation I have is to get an incubator so you don’t have to keep buying chickens from me, instead of basically hatching your own,” he nods to the barn. “That your next project?”

“After you take a look at it. I don’t think it’s worth trying to fix with how bad it is, but I wanted to ask someone that has actual experience with this and the certifications to do it.”

Shanks nods, “Makes sense. I’ll bring your chickens tomorrow, since you already paid for them upfront. But I’m not going to walk all the way back to my place and then back here to give them to you today, not when I have real work to do.”

“Or Benn with stop you from drinking for the next week?”

“I wish, he’s recruited Makino to stop me too. Bad enough that I’m finding my booze at home replaced with water or teas, but now Makino will take my order and then serve me something else without a drop of alcohol,” Shanks sighs and peers at the wall of the barn. “Burn it.”

“Burn the barn?” Ace says slowly.

“These are termites, Ace. This isn’t remotely salvageable if they’ve gotten as deep in as it looks. Who knows when the infestation started and this isn’t new. You can tell by,” Shanks taps a plank and raises an eyebrow as it shatters. “Fragile it all is. The coop didn’t have this, is the house?”

“Gramps sent someone to inspect the house before I moved in, it’s perfectly fine, beyond some updating and minor repairs,” Ace promises.

“Good. But you’re going to need to get this professionally removed with how bad it is and then have a pest control group come and make sure that none of them have gotten into the fence or any of the other outbuildings that you have on the property.”

Ace groans, knocking his hat off his head and trying not to pull a face when his hand slid through his sweat slick hair, “Fuck that’s gonna cost me, isn’t it?”

“A pretty penny,” Shanks agrees shaking his head. “I can ask Ed if he knows anyone who would be do it fairly cheap, since you’re already going to be out a bit until you get in your harvest and start to become more self-sufficient.”

“Ed?”

“Please tell me that you’ve at least introduced yourself to the rest of the town. Ed is Edward Newgate, he runs the orphanage here in town and also sits as the town’s mayor, though I hear he won’t be running for reelection this upcoming term. He knows just about everyone here in town, if he doesn’t, then there’s no one in town who can help and I’ll look into who will come here to help out.”

“Thanks. I still haven’t finished up with the wiring in the house, it might be livable but it’s barely up to code. And the technician that was suppose to install the phone refused since it would short out if she even attempted to hook a phone to that mess.”

“You would think that Garp would have made sure that the place was kept a bit nicer instead of just being left to basically rot,” Shanks says and Ace blinks because he almost sounds sad, but by the time he’s turned back to Ace, he’s smiling once more. “But I’ll ask Ed. Seriously Ace, have you talked to anyone in town?”

Ace shrugs, “I’ve been too busy to go into town beyond picking up my mail or tracking you down to try and get my chickens.”

“I’m sorry, but they are my chickens and I have already named them,” Shanks states already pulling out his phone like he’s going to show off pictures of his chickens like he showed off pictures of his dog. He doesn’t which is a relief, just checking for a text before shoving it back into his pocket. “Ace, you can’t just hole yourself up here at the farm and not introduce yourself. This is a tight knit community, they are here to help each other. They are here to help you. Come on, you can afford to take a small break and meet a few people.”

“I want to get another wack at the electrical system. Maybe see if I can find some of the wiring that’s stopping me from getting a phone.”

“Ace, you can take a single day. Not even a whole day, just a few hours. To meet with the mayor of the town and maybe some of the others. It’s not that much and it’s good to take breaks. You’ll overwork yourself if you don’t,” Shanks states firmly. “It’ll be good for you.”

“Fine,” Ace sighs, brushing a hand through his hair again and wincing. He can feel how badly he’s sweating, but he can only imagine how dirty and disgusting he must look to the rest of the people that Shanks will want to introduce him to. “Should I shower?”

“Is that really your first thought?” Shanks demands raising an eyebrow.

“Makino said that if you want to make a good first impression that you need to be neat and clean, or have you not listened when she tries to lecture you on manners?” Ace returns. “Give me ten minutes and I’ll shower and change. You’re worse than Luffy and Sabo.”

“Who do you think ordered me to ‘make sure that Ace doesn’t become a reclusive hermit’?”

“That isn’t how they worded that and we both know it,” Ace says shaking his head. “You wanna sit in the house while I get ready or do you just wanna hang out by the broken barn?”

Shanks shrugs, “Inside sounds better, but you better be quick kid, I have people to see.”

“I’m going, I’m going.”

 

* * *

 

“We have a new occupant at the farm,” Pops states shifting the cards in his hands and glancing at Marco. “Apparently they inherited the farm from Rouge after her death and have finally come to look into it.”

“Letting it fall into disrepair for twenty years seems like they’ll stick around long enough to repair some of it and then sell it to a developer,” Marco says ignoring his look and frowning at his cards. “Just like what happened when the other farmer to the south of town died.”

Pops sighs, “Son, you could at least look at me. I’m just trying to tell you the newest gossip.”

“I moved to a big city for ten years to avoid all the gossip that comes from small towns. Just because I’ve come back to help take care of you and to complete my dig, doesn’t mean that I want to get dragged back into your gossip, pops.”

“Which is why you are boring,” Haruta states kicking her feet as she narrows her eyes at her cards. “Pops, do you have any sevens?”

“Go fish,” Pops states with the same tone he had used when he had caught one of them in a lie. “Marco, son, do you have any fours?”

Marco passes over his four, “Haruta, do you have any sevens?” He smirks when she starts cursing, reluctantly handing over three of the four sevens and letting him set all four down in front of him. “Thank you. Pops, do you have any twos?”

“I don’t. Did you know that Jinbei might be moving back into town?”

“Pops, I don’t want to know about the gossip. I’m taking my lunch and I even agreed to play cards with you instead of heading right back to the dig. All I ask is that you don’t make me listen to all the gossip that you think I need to hear.”

“Are we gossiping about Jinbei?” Marco closes his eyes and counts to ten before he speaks, recognizing the voice. “Hey Ed, I thought you were gonna be at home, we went all the way to your house first.”

There’s a snort, almost a laugh, and it takes Marco half a second to realize that it’s not from him, glancing up to find someone else standing in Shanks’ shadow, “Of course you like this guy, you’re the worst gossip this side of Raftel.”

“I’m being attacked?” Shanks gasps dramatically. “By a kid wearing an orange cowboy hat. Ed, may I introduce you to Ace Portgas?”

Pops laughs, “Related to Rouge then, young man?”

“My mom,” Ace answers and Marco tilts his head to the side, trying to see any of the woman that he remembered in his face. He thinks he can see something of her in the curl of Ace’s hair and the freckles that are splattered over his face. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Ace here’s been living with one of his dad’s friends since Rouge and his dad died,” Marco wonders if he’s missed something because pops seems to know who Shanks is talking about when he mentions Ace’s dad, but Haruta looks just as lost as Marco feels. “Was actually hoping you knew someone that could take down his old barn, termites.”

“The sort of thing that can happen when things are left alone for a while,” Pops agrees, but his tone isn’t condemning. Marco can understand that, the kid isn’t that old, maybe in his twenties and he certainly couldn’t have been in control of the property for long. “I think that Jinbei might know someone.”

“Jinbei, like Professor Jinbei?” Ace asks slowly glancing between them. “Because the last time I saw Professor Jinbei, I was defending my essay and he and I had a,” he pauses and Marco wants to grin because he knows that look. It’s the same look he had when Robin had first offered him to join her. “A disagreement.”

“You should be fine,” Marco says smiling when Ace looks at him. “One of my professors and I had the same issue and we’re working on a dig together.”

“We may or may not have been pulled off each other before someone called the police?”

Marco laughs, trying to imagine Jinbei fighting someone over an essay, “I would have loved to see that.”

“I’m sure that one of my brothers has the video,..”

“Marco, Marco Newgate. And this is my sister, Haruta.”

Ace nods, “Nice to meet you both. I’m sure that I’ll see you both around, since I’m trying to get the farm up and running again. Unless you are only in town to visit?”

“I work at the restaurant,” Haruta says brightly. “But I’m gonna be starting college next year. I took a year off so that I had time before going.”

“What do you want to major in?” Ace asks. “I did biology with a minor in Horticulture.”

Haruta shakes her head, “I’m not sure yet. Izo and Thatch, those are two of my other brothers, went to college for fashion and cooking but graduated with a chemical degree and a business degree, so,” she shrugs.

“True, you never know what you’re going to find yourself studying after you actually get into college,” Ace agrees with a nod. “What about you, Marco? What do you do?”

“You mean you haven’t heard? I thought pops had been talking everyone’s ear off about my coming home.”

Ace shrugs, “I may had been a little busy. Apparently, if you leave a farm alone for twenty something years it takes a lot of work to get it up and running again. I think this is the first time that I’ve been here since I came through to actually reach the farm.”

“I’m an archeologist,” Marco answers. “I’m here on a dig with Robin, I’m sure you’ll meet her at some point.”

“Robin, married to Franky, Robin? Tall lady, dark hair, kinda,” Ace pauses and seems to reconsider his words for a long moment. “Deadpan?”

“You were going to say creepy, weren’t you?”

“Look, the first time I met Robin, she asked me if I knew how painful it would be to be mummified alive, okay? That’s set the tone of all our interactions since. She’s nice, even if she is a little bit creepy. She hangs out with one of my brothers, when they’re both in the same place. She’s going to join his team of-”

“Treasure hunters?” Marco finishes for him. “You’re Luffy’s older brother?”

Ace nods, “The oldest of his two older brothers. I,” Marco can see the moment that Ace notices his hair and the way his face lights up. “Oh, you have to be bird man!”

“Please don’t call me that.”

“Sorry, sorry, it’s just that’s what Luffy calls you. I didn’t mean,” He pauses as Haruta falls out of her chair laughing. “Is she okay?”

Marco hums, “She was dropped too much as a child, ignore her.”

“It’s nice to meet you, if it makes you feel any better, Luffy had nothing but good things to say about you. Not that I’m likely to see you much.”

“I spend most of my time at the dig, except for when I come into town to see pops. It’s nice to hear that Ms. Rouge’s farm isn’t going to be sold to a developer.”

Ace pauses, “You knew my mom?”

“As well as an eight year old know anyone. She used to come into town with these bushels of strawberries to bribe my pops to actually do his job. He used to be the mayor and the judge and whatever else the town needed him to be. And sometimes he and his friend,” Marco pauses for a moment because there’s something about pop’s friend, but he can’t remember-, “Roger, would head into the mountains for a week and pretend that pops didn’t have a real job.”

“Sounds like a bad influence,” Ace states. “Mom sounds like she was happy here.”

“I like to think she was. She was my baby sitter too,” Marco sets his cards down and sighs. “I can tell you about her sometime if you’d like? But right this second, I have to get back to work,” He holds out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Ace.”

Ace grins, shaking his hand, “And you too, Marco. See you around!”

Marco tries to ignore the looks that are shot at him as he says his goodbyes to pops and Shanks. Pops has been trying to meet people who knew Marco when he lived in the city and while Ace might not have known him personally, hasn’t doubted that Ace has heard quite a bit about Luffy’s friend, Robin’s friend, Bird man. He fears for what will make it to Haruta and Pops. They’re good at getting people to talk.

Robin barely looks up from the broken pot when Marco walks back into their tent, “Should I be concerned that you have a heat injury?”

“I’m fine. Did you know that one of Luffy’s brothers lives in town?” Marco asks because he doesn’t doubt that Robin could know everything. It’s like she could grow extra limbs when he wasn’t looking. “He’s taken over his mother’s farm.”

“Ace, yes. Luffy said that he might be willing to help us with some of the heavy lifting if his farm was going well. We could use the help and we have the funds to pay him for his work. I thought we would check next week to see if he was able.”

“And you didn’t want to warn me?”

Robin smiles at him, “Why would you need a warning?”

 

* * *

  
  


Haruta hiccups as she pulls herself back into her chair and smiles so brightly that it has to hurt, “Bird man?”

“I don’t think Marco would be happy with me if I told that story,” Ace says slowly, even as Haruta looks almost pleadingly up at him. “I mean, it’s not bad but it’s not… That look won’t look.”

“Please,” Haruta begs, not changing the look on her face. “Please, please, please. I just want one embarrassing story to hold over Marco’s head. Please?”

“If you don’t I will,” Shanks shouts and Ace almost flinches because Shanks can embellish a story better than anyone that Ace knows and he knows that Shanks will make it even more unflattering than it had been. “I’m sure that Ed would love to hear about his son and Franky’s bird.”

Ace sighs, “Alright fine, but if Marco asks, you tell him that Shanks told you, deal?”

“Deal!”

“Alright,” Ace sighs. “So my brother, Luffy, was going to visit Robin and Franky because Franky was fixing up his bike. Well he got there and apparently at some point earlier in the day, the finch that Robin and Franky share had escaped and no one had noticed. Or they hadn’t until little Ohara decided that Robin’s grad student’s hair was the best place to nest.”

“I told him that his hair was a bird’s nest,” Ed sighs, but he’s grinning, so Ace assumes it’s one of those jokes that he hears parents use on their children. “I didn’t think it was literal.”

“But to make it worse, Ohara had been there for hours and Robin hadn’t said anything. In fact, when Luffy walked in, she tried to keep him from saying anything. Except, if you know my brother, that’s impossible. Luffy decides then and there, that this is the bird man. He is one with the birds, because Ohara is an asshole who likes no one. So the first words out of his mouth are ‘Bird man, how did you make Ohara your friend! Teach me!’.”

“Bird man,” Haruta wheezes like she’s dying and Ace raises his eyebrow because he hadn’t found it that funny. “I can’t wait to hold this over him for the rest of his life.”

“Doesn’t he have stories to hold over you?”

Haruta waves off Ace’s concerns, “I don’t care, this is better than those.”

“If you say so,” Ace says turning to Shanks. “Do we have anyone else to see? Jinbei is probably still mad at me and he’s not going to be willing to help with the barn.”

“Ah, leave Jinbei to me,” Ed, Ace is never going to say that name out loud because Ed looks older than gramps, says smiling. “I’m sure it was all a misunderstanding, we’ll see what he has to say. It was a pleasure to meet you, Ace.”

“If you’re so sure, sir.”

“Edward or Mr. Newgate if you must, Ace. I’m far too old to be sir. Don’t make me feel older.”

“If you like, s-” Ace stops. “Mr. Newgate.”

Ed shakes his head, “You’re very polite, your mother would be proud. She was always polite, even when she wanted to smack someone.”

“Thank you?” Ace files this new piece of information about his mother away, smiling softly. He didn’t know much about her and already today he had learned two new things. Maybe more if he separated all the little things that Marco had told him into more than one thing. “I think I should be heading back, are you going to stay here, Shanks?”

Shanks nods, “Yeah, I’m gonna catch up with Eddy here and then head back home. I’ll bring your chickens around tomorrow morning, so be ready. And their feed. I’m just gonna steal Benn’s truck, easier to transport it that way.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, don’t get convicted of auto theft,” Ace waves, ignoring the confusion that he can hear. It’s already edging into the evening and it’ll be sunset by the time he hits the farm again. Just long enough to check over the field and then creep into the attic. “Fuck, I wanted to get the power fixed.”

He scrubs a hand through his hair, it would still be bright enough when he got home to at least look over the wiring and see if he could figure out which part of the wiring was making everything go wrong. If he couldn’t find anything here he would have to call in an electrician too, and with the barn needing to come down and be rebuilt, Ace wasn’t sure that he could afford both. At least not until he started making a profit, which wasn’t looking to be any time soon.

Ace sighs when he makes it back to the farm, making his way to the fuse box and almost crying in relief when he spots what is wrong with the power. One of the many things that he’s seen helping Dadan with her rental properties over the years. Something that he even had the tools to fix, he could do that tomorrow after he got the chickens in place and watered the crops.

“Ace, answer your phone,” His cell phone shouts and he laughs, closing the door behind him. “Answer us! Answer us! Sabo, help me!” Before repeating the ringtone that his brothers had set up for him before he had left them.

“Hello this is Ace,” He says trying not to laugh as he answers. “If you have a message please leave it answer the beep.”

“Aw, Ace didn’t answer Sabo!” Luffy shouts sounding sad. “Should I hang up and try again?”

Sabo sighs, “Don’t be an ass, Ace.”

“Sorry,” Ace laughs and Luffy shouts that he was too mean. “I couldn’t resist. How are you both? Has gramps tried to make you join the marines again, Sabo?”

“No, but that might be because I’ve gotten a job with Luffy’s dad. You remember him, don’t you?”

Ace frowns, vaguely remembering a man that would come to visit Luffy several times a month. He was awkward and always looked uncomfortable, but he had shown up more than gramps had, “A bit?”

“He’s a politician. He hired me to be his aide, so I’m apparently off limits now. I’ll still be living here with Luffy, no worries there,” Sabo promises. “We’ll be fine.”

“That’s, that’s good. I was worried that he would go after you without me there to stop him. What about Luffy?”

“I got into college!” Luffy shouts excitedly. “I’m gonna be a treasure hunter, Robin says that they have lots of adventures!”

Ace nods along with Luffy as he rambles about what he and his crew will do as they explore and ‘Ace, we’ll be famous!’, until Sabo forces Luffy to go to bed, taking the phone for himself.

“We’re fine, Ace. Luffy and I are fine and gramps isn’t doing anything that he hasn’t done before. He’s at least not talking about Luffy in the military and that’s the best we could have hoped for.”

“Yeah. What college did Luffy get into, I don’t think he’s mentioned it once.”

“Your alma mater. Apparently the pirate mascot was cooler than a dragon. Which is wrong, but it’s Luffy,” Sabo sighs and Ace can almost see him leaning against a wall and frowning. “Dadan’s signed over the house to me, so I’m even a homeowner too now. How’s the farm?”

Ace sighs, “The house is gonna be perfect tomorrow, I found the issue with the power and I can fix that up myself. The coop is up and running, Shanks is bringing my chickens tomorrow,” He pauses. “The barn has to be torn down. It’s infested with termites and Shanks says it’ll be cheaper to take it out and start from scratch. But that means getting the rest of my outbuildings checked for termites too.”

“Do you even have the money for that?”

“Maybe?” Ace admits, because Sabo is his brother and has always been better at seeing through his lies then Luffy when it comes to this sort of thing. “Professor Jinbei apparently does this sort of thing and the guy that Shanks made me talk to says that even the fight we had wouldn’t be enough to stop him from helping me.”

“Ace, you and Professor Jinbei spent three years arguing with each other in the snide way that all scientists do through papers, before it came down to that fist fight.”

Ace flinches, “I know. Oh, I’ve met bird man.”

“He exists?”

“His name is Marco Newgate and he and Robin are working nearby on a dig. I ran into him when Shanks introduced me to the mayor, Edward Newgate. Marco’s dad,” Ace stops. “They knew my mom.”

Sabo hums, “What did they have to say? DId they have any good stories?”

“I didn’t get any this time. Mom apparently bribed the mayor with strawberries. She may have met dad through him. His best friend’s name was Roger.”

“Maybe you’ll get more out of them than we did out of gramps. His name was Roger and he’s dead doesn’t tell you much, does it?”

“Yeah, I’m just…”

“Not willing to say that Roger’s your dad until you find out why people are so weird about him?” Sabo says and Ace can see Sabo’s eyebrow rising. “I understand. Don’t worry so much, Ace. If there was something was wrong with him, we would have found something out about him when we looked him up.”

Ace sighs deciding to distract Sabo before he can prod him more, “I’m sure you’re right. How’s Koala?”

“Trying to take over the world before she finishes up her degree,” Sabo answers besottedly. Which is always how Sabo sounds when he starts to talk about Koala, it was disgusting.

“And leaving you behind to watch her go?”

“You wish, she’s taken an internship with Dragon for the time being. Because Professor Jinbei actually likes her and wrote her a recommendation.”

“Professor Jinbei and I have very different views on hybrid plants and so help me, I will prove him wrong if I have to fund my experiments myself here on this farm,” Ace takes a deep breath. “Sorry. I should get to sleep. Shanks is finally gonna give me those chickens and I’m exhausted.”

“Then get some sleep, I’m sure that you’ll do fine. Call us tomorrow and tell us about your chickens. Luffy already has names picked for them all.”

Ace laughs, “Tell him that I’m not going to name a chicken Meat, that’s just rude.”

“Fine, I’ll tell him that Meat, Chicken Wing, Beef Steak, and Whopper are off the menu.”

“If you make one more horrible joke,” Ace warns. “I’m disowning you and no one can stop me,” he sighs. “Good night. Keep safe, politics is a dangerous day job.”

“So is running a farm, good night.”

Ace stares out the window for a long moment after he hangs up, the stars too bright and, he knew they weren’t but they seemed, closer. He could see so many more, swirling above him.

He sighs, pushing himself upright and setting the same series of alarms that he would need to wake him up in time to get ready and start his chores before Shanks showed up. Maybe once he’s gotten more money, he can start to modernize the farm and fix the things that had fallen into disarray when his mother had died. Maybe, if he could finish up early tomorrow, he could hunt down Edward Newgate or Marco and try to get more information about his parents from them.

“Seriously mom,” Ace mutters tiredly, glancing at the picture of her that he had found pressed between the pages of one of the books in the attic. “You would think that people would tell me about you and that guy. What was he? Not even gramps talks about him and shit talks Dragon all the time.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ace finally gets those chicks and gets to meet someone else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> rockingthegraveyard made some great fanart: http://art-farting.tumblr.com/post/173092106392/spring-comes-a-mender-of-things-by , if you wanna check it out! (also that's why this chapter is out sooner, I wanted it to be longer but oh well)

"If you name one of them Meat, I will take them all back home and keep them safe from your monstrous appetite," Shanks warns, pulling out the cage with the four chicks from the back of Benn's truck.

 

Ace laughs, accepting them, "Then I shouldn't tell you about what Luffy wants to name them? Because he mentioned all his favorites in our phone call last night."

 

"Please don't. I can only imagine, actually, you know what? Tell me," Shanks nods to the mess of tools at the side of the house. "Working on something?"

 

"Meat, Chicken Wing, Beef Steak, and Whopper. Found the issue with the wiring that the phone company keeps talking about. I just about have it fixed up. Which means I can call them back out and see what they think about it now," Ace answers tugging his hat up from where it was hanging around his neck. "Hopefully they don't say some bullshit about having to get it inspected by a 'licensed' electrician. I am licensed."

 

"Of course Luffy would. He’s going to try and name your cow something like Hamburger. If you want to give them a second opinion, I think Ed's still got his license. I know he picked it up about twenty years ago. Rouge was their hobbyist electrician before that, but had to give it up when she got pregnant."

 

Ace hums, tucking that new piece of information to the side as he moves towards his house, humming to himself as Shanks follows on his heels. The house is dark, the power still off for the moment but bright enough to see with the light coming in from the windows.

 

"Do you have plans for names?" Shanks asks blinking rapidly to adjust to the sudden darkness. "Or are you going to call them all chick?"

 

"I don't know what to name them. What would you use?" Ace asks kneeling down beside the cardboard box that he had set up like the video he had found had directed. "For names, I mean."

 

"Sword makers. Wallace, Joyeuse, San Martin. That sort of thing," Shanks answers taking a seat beside the brooder. "This isn't bad at all, most people just think you can throw them into the coop and keep them there when they get chicks. You've got the cedar shavings and the food and water dispensers. Even plenty of space for them to go around and avoid the heat lamp if they want to."

 

"Of course I did," Ace says insulted. "I wanted to make sure that they wouldn't die soon. This is for about six weeks and then they can live in the coop. But you said it had to be done, so it's done. Sword makers?"

 

"Your mom named hers after bands, I don't think you should be judging me."

 

"What bands?"

 

Shanks shrugs, "It was over twenty years ago, I was fifteen and too busy trying to get into people's pants. I think girls at that point, I know I didn't try to get into a boy's pants until I was sixteen."

 

"Shanks, I don't wanna hear about your teenage years having sex with anything that moved. It's bad enough to hear about what you and Benn get up to," Ace says moving the chicks into the brooder and grinning as they started making soft chirping sounds. "I'm gonna get less sleep than ever."

 

"Nah, they're good at sleeping. Might get you up early, but once it gets dark, they're usually asleep," Shanks strokes a finger over one of the chicks. "You have to name them."

 

"And what am I suppose to name them? Because I'll default to Mera, Gomu, Ope, and Sara."

 

"That sounds like you have names. Which one is which?" Shanks demands. "You have to say which is which."

 

Ace scowls, "I'll figure that out when they're older. They need identifying marks before I can make those choices," he sighs. "Come on, I need to get the power back on for these guys. If you could call Mr. Newgate and ask him who else can check this over for me, so I don't get another denial from the phone company. And a quote."

 

"I'll do that. What else you got for me?" Shanks asks following Ace back out and watching him finish up with the power switches, the lights inside flicking on with the hum of the A/C. "You do some good work."

 

"Thanks," Ace says cleaning up his tools and wiping his forehead. "I've got to water my crops and then I want to get started on looking through the outbuildings. After that," he hums. "I think that's all that I have planned, but we'll see how long it takes me to do that."

 

"Busy day then," Shanks laughs. "Good luck, I'll check in with Ed and let you know. Do make sure that you don't get hurt or sick. It's hot out and you're not exactly in a place where people are going to come and visit most of the time."

 

"I'm going to be fine," Ace states shaking his head. "I'm perfectly fine with what I'm doing, I'm use to hard work in the heat."

 

"Fine, fine. You need me to pick up anything else for you? Because if you're out of something, I can bring it back from the store. It's not going to be inconvenient."

 

Ace rolls his eyes, "I'm fine, Shanks. Honestly, you're as bad as Sabo sometimes. Did you take your medication, Ace? Did you finish all your homework? I know what I have to do and I know what will happen if I get too hot. Don't hover."

 

"If you're sure. I'll call when I get more information from Ed. Good luck with your crops and the outbuildings. I know your mom kept a lot of junk in some of those. Things that needed to fixed before she could use them but would be useful later, that sort of thing."

 

"Might have some parts that I'll need. I've been trying to fiddle with the sprinkler system, gonna need more pipes and maybe some sprinklers. It'd be nice to know what she had that I can fix up instead of buying it all."

 

"She's got a lot of things, don't think your mom even knew what she had in there. Not after Roger broke down one of her shelving units by accident."

 

Ace bites his tongue to avoid saying thing that he might regret instead asking, "Roger? Was he one of her friends?"

 

"That he was. They were close, them and Ed too. Your mom use to despair at Roger even getting himself in gear and doing anything. He worked out of town, but he came here a lot," Shanks adds. "I'll head out now, unless you need me?"

 

"I'm fine, thanks for the chicks and for checking about another electrician for me."

 

Ace waits quietly as the truck pulls out, leaning back against the fence around the chicken coop, "So he wasn't from here," he pulls out his phone, adding to the memos that he had on it for both of his parents before sighing and standing back up. He had more work to do. "Now where is that watering can?"

 

The sprinkler system was already raising higher on his priority list. Even if he only got it to cover a small portion of the field, the portion that he had crops in, than it would save him more time than he wanted to think about. Time to finish fixing up the house or to work on some of the crossbreeds that he was suppose to finish up in a few months. His research budget would be taken back if he didn't do his work, not to mention the special orders that were wanted.

 

It takes longer than he likes to get everything watered, including the handful of small potted plants scattered before the front door, part of an order that was going to be picked up in another week, before tugging off his gloves and collapsing onto his bed, because he can, listening to the chicks make their quiet sounds until he feels relaxed enough to get back up.

 

"Fuck it's too early for anything," Ace mutters staring at the clock and wondering how he hasn't even reached noon yet. Too early for lunch and Ace would rather get started on those damn out buildings to see what he can salvage into something useful.

 

He stumbles outside and stops short at the man standing on the other side, "Who are you?"

 

"Who are you?" he counters before grinning, "Sorry, I couldn't resist. I'm Thatch Newgate, Shanks asked pops if he had anyone who would be willing to check over the wiring. I've got nothing better to do and it's a slow day at the restaurant. So here I am."

 

"How much-"

 

Thatch laughs, "Nah, I don't want your money. But if you wanna pay me back after you get some of those strawberries harvested in a month or two, we can call it even?" he offers. "I can't get any that are fresh enough to make the strawberry themed items on my menu, it always tastes slightly off."

 

"I should be able to get you a couple pounds?"

 

"Three pounds of strawberries and we're even," Thatch holds his hand out like he wants to shake on it and Ace accepts. "Awesome. Show me what this horror show has gotten up to. Pops says that your mom, Rouge right?" Ace nods. "Got her certs for electricity because this place's wiring is a cluster fuck. She wanted to rewire it at some point."

 

Ace nods, "I can see why, some of it's jury-rigged together with duct tape and prayers. Most of it's up there, do you need me to stick around? I was gonna check out the other buildings and see what I can do with them."

 

"Go ahead," Thatch says, already up the ladder and fiddling with things. "I'm gonna be here until I finish my inspection. I'll come get you if we have have to get anything changed so you can take a look and figure out what you wanna do."

 

"Thanks, don't knock out the power, the chicks wouldn't like it."

 

"That's what's peeping," Thatch says quietly and Ace thinks he might be talking to himself.

 

He checks the water and feed in the brooder before heading back outside and heading to the first of the sheds closest to the house, pushing up the metal door and blinking at the truck inside, "I can't deal with this right now," Ace mutters staring at it. "Now I have to see if it can even run again?"

 

"And that's a lot of junk," Ace sighs looking to the left and seeing how much is piled high on the shelving units.

 

He picks up one of the boxes, shifting through it to find bits of wire, cords that looked like they either didn't work or his mom couldn't figure out what it belonged to so had shoved it together, nothing important. He sets it down and moves further, careful as he opens one of the containers on the shelf and grinning in triumph. Pipes, differing sizes and little mechanical bits. Maybe parts of sprinklers for his next big project.

 

"That's where it went," Thatch says suddenly, startling Ace into jumping back from the shelving unit. "Sorry, sorry. I wanted to tell you that there's a section of the wiring that's not grounded. Pops had that in our garage for years," he nods to the truck. "Only drove it a couple times a month and never far. Keys should be inside it. Your mom asked him to take care of it while she was gone, I guess."

 

"Well," Ace bites his cheek to stop himself from saying something stupid. "That's convenient, honestly. I was worried about how I was going to get a vehicle here."

 

"Do you not have one already?" Thatch asks.

 

Ace shakes his head tiredly, "I lived in the city, public transport took care of anywhere that I would have to go. This saves me a couple thousand and begging Shanks to take me into town, now I just have to figure out car insurance."

 

"Should I even ask about a license?"

 

"Gramps made sure that we all had one, just never gave us a car to drive," Ace waves him off before closing the door. "You said there was something that needed to be grounded?"

 

"It's only a small section," Thatch promises him, "Nothing that will take more than a handful of minutes."

 

"I hope so, because otherwise, I'm just going to rip all the wiring out and put myself into debt to redo it myself and the poor chicks are going to have to go back to live with Shanks and his gossiping ways."


End file.
